WATCH: Speaking to RFE/RL in Warsaw, former President Lech Walesa says the West played an instrumental role in bringing down communism in his country a quarter of a century ago. The former leader of the Solidarity trade union also reminisces about the challenges and hopes of Polish opposition leaders, the introduction of martial law in 1981, and the international support received by his movement. (RFE/RL's Russian Service)

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Poland's Jaruzelski Laid To Rest, Amid Protests

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The ashes of Poland's former communist leader Wojciech Jaruzelski have been laid to rest at a military cemetery in the Polish capital, Warsaw.

Jaruzelski died on May 25 aged 90.

Earlier on May 30, three of Poland's post-1989 democratically elected presidents attended a funeral Mass at Warsaw's military cathedral.

Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski, former President Aleksander Kwasniewski, and anticommunist icon and Jaruzelski's ideological foe, former President Lech Walesa, paid their respects.

Walesa, who led the Solidarity movement and was jailed for a year, visited Jaruzelski in the hospital in 2011 and at his home in 2012 -- part of a rapprochement between the two former enemies.

While in power, Jaruzelski declared martial law in 1981 to brutally stamp down a pro-democracy uprising before finally stepping aside to allow free elections.

Some 100 protesters on May 30 held pictures of the victims of the 1981 crackdown, captioned "Disgraceful," during a protest at Warsaw's Powazki cemetery, where Jaruzelski is buried.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP

WATCH: Former President Aleksander Kwasniewski lauds Wojciech Jaruzelski for his role in negotiating a peaceful transition to democracy in the late 1980s.

Speaking to RFE/RL's Russian Service ahead of the 25th anniversary of the 1989 elections that marked the end of communist rule in Poland, Walesa also gave his views on the current approaches of the United States and Russia on the world stage.

WATCH: Former Polish President Lech Walesa calls on Russia to change its policies regarding its neighbors.

WATCH: Former Polish President Lech Walesa says he is "disappointed" with U.S. President Barack Obama's "lack of leadership" in world affairs, and that the United States has ceased to be the world's moral and political leader.